Biden moves to reinstate health protections for LGBTQ Americans
Biden moves to reinstate health protections for LGBTQ Americans: A new regulation that was proposed by the Biden administration on Monday would make it such that transgender persons and other LGBTQ people would once again be protected from discrimination in the field of health care.
Biden moves to reinstate health protections for LGBTQ Americans
In the proposed rule (RIN 0945-AA17), which would reverse a regulation from the Trump administration, gender identity and sexual orientation would both be restored as grounds for protection against discrimination under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. The Office for Civil Rights within the Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for enforcing Section 1557, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, or disability by entities that primarily provide health care and receive federal funding. This section of the law was enacted in 1988.
This comes at a time when a number of states have passed legislation that makes it illegal to provide gender-affirming care to transgender children. Advocates argue that this could lead to discrimination and damage. In addition, the state of Texas has adopted a policy according to which families are subjected to child abuse investigations if it is believed that they are looking for care of this kind.
These provisions would be enforced by the new rule for health insurance plans that conduct business through Medicare, Medicaid, or the Obamacare exchanges. This includes care delivered under Medicare Part B, such as that which is provided in a doctor’s office. The decision made by the Obama administration that the term “health-care plan” should be included in the definition of “health-care program” was overturned by the Trump administration in its rule for the year 2020.
In a call with reporters on Monday, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said, “We want to make sure that whoever you are, whatever you look like, wherever you live, however you wish to live your life, that you have access to the care that you need so that your decisions are based on what you and your health-care provider and your physician or the person you depend on for medical decisions is available to you so that you can access the care that you need.” “We want to make sure that you have faith that this will help to restore and bolster civil rights safeguards for patients and customers across the country.
In light of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that LGBTQ people are protected from discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Biden administration announced in May 2021 that it would interpret “sex” in the Affordable Care Act to include gender identity. This was done in response to the decision that LGBTQ people are protected from discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The regulations that were created under the Obama administration and those that have been created during the Trump administration to enforce Section 1557 are still being challenged in court. In those decisions, the courts determined that the word “sex” could not be construed in such a way as to incorporate gender identity in the governing regulations.
“It is possible that we will be challenged by someone who believes that we are not correctly understanding the law. Becerra commented that “We think that we are, and we have taken quite a deal of time.”
Melanie Fontes Rainer, the acting director of the Office for Civil Rights, stated on the call that the proposed rule contains a clause on religion and conscience issues in response to comments received from the health care business and advocates. Despite the fact that the Trump administration has approved a large number of rules on the subject, the previous regulations for rule 1557 do not address religious and conscience exclusions in the rule.
The rule would provide protection for anyone who is subjected to discrimination on the basis of their pregnancy or conditions related to pregnancy, including “pregnancy termination.” This comes only a few short weeks after the Supreme Court of the United States devolved the right to have an abortion to the individual states.
According to the rule, the safeguards against discrimination would also apply to telehealth services and algorithms that are used to support healthcare decisions.
According to statements made by Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, who spoke with reporters, clarifying that Medicare Part B is covered under this act is an attempt to ensure that “the regulations are uniform and simple.” “By doing this, we are really making sure that the safeguards that are granted by 1557 are really extending much more generally throughout all of our programs,” the author of the passage said.
Following publication of the regulation in the Federal Register, the Department of Health and Human Services will accept public comments for a period of sixty days. Becerra stated that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) wants to proceed as swiftly as possible and that they hope to finalize the rule by the end of 2022.
